6 Highly-Effective Time Management Hacks for Sales People

April 12, 2018
Eric Mann
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Most sales reps probably feel like they’re selling all of the time, but a closer look at how they actually spend their days reveals otherwise.

In fact, the average salesperson spends only 37% of his or her time focused on selling, and the other 63% on non-revenue generating activities (though not necessarily by choice), according to a survey by InsideSales.com.

The Time Management for Sales study also found that only 28% of sales reps follow a structured time management system. According to Brian Tracy, a well-known productivity expert, salespeople can potentially double their sales by sticking with a time management system.

“If you manage your time and develop the habit of goal setting as the top salespeople do, so that you are spending more time with customers, your sales will increase immediately,” Tracy writes on his blog.

Goal setting is an excellent strategy for maximizing your day. Here are six more actionable ways to boost your sales productivity:

1. Track Your Time

People who are horrible with money usually don’t have a good grasp on where it’s all going every month. It’s the same with time. If you don’t track your time, how are you supposed to know if you’re spending it wisely? How will you ever improve your productivity? And now, understanding your time doesn’t have to be difficult. Timeboost does it automatically for you.

Timeboost gives you a clear picture of how you’re spending your days. By linking to your calendar, our visual tool shows you how much time you’re putting into specific tasks like sales (hopefully more than 37%) or administrative drudgery, which accounts are getting their fair share of your time, and which contacts are the biggest time-sucks, and how much progress you’re making against your intended goals.

2. Prioritize Your Biggest Opportunities

As a salesperson, you know that not every account or opportunity is created equal. That big whale of a client is worth way more of your time than the small fry.

But the reality is that the smallest opportunities sometimes end up taking up a big chunk of your time. And you might not even realize this is happening unless you can see your time visually.

Timeboost gives you visibility into how much time you’re devoting on each account. It even works with your Salesforce.com account so time spent on each account is automatically tracked.

3. Make Better Meetings

We all know meetings can be a huge time suck. Protect your time by avoiding bad meetings and investing in good ones. What’s a bad meeting? Any meeting that won’t help you sell more, either in the short term or in the long run.

If a meeting doesn’t have a preset agenda, that’s a red flag. If there are too many attendees in one meeting, be prepared for a lot of chatter and not much else getting done. If an important contact declines to attend, you might also want to cancel. But if your boss will be in the room, you’ll want to be prepared so you can shine.

Luckily, Timeboost alerts you to meetings without agendas, ones with too many or too few attendees, and ones with senior executives in attendance.

4. Schedule Meetings Faster

Think about how much time you spend just trying to set up a single meeting with a prospect. The back-and-forth of playing e-mail or phone tag can be a huge drag.

There’s a better way. Timeboost’s FreeTime Finder lets you send available time slots via email to prospects. Your prospects just click on the best time for them. Easy for you, easy for your customers.

5. Tick Off Your Tasks in Batches

Spending your day “pecking” at your inbox whenever you have a free moment or trying to cram administrative tasks in between sales calls isn’t very efficient. Moving from one unrelated task to another can be hugely distracting and ultimately slows you down.

Optimize your mental acuity and efficiency by batching similar tasks together. Instead of dipping into your inbox every few minutes, check your email and respond to your messages in 30-minute slots, three times a day. Block out a chunk of time to do all of your administrative duties like updating your CRM or filling out expense reports at the same time, every day.

6. Block Out Your Day

Your sales improve and your feel better when you are in control of your calendar. A chaotic, random daily schedule can easily hijack your productivity and your mood.

Time blocking can be transformational for sales teams. Guard your schedule by allocating blocks of time with specific goals in mind. For example, you might devote time in the morning to making calls on your biggest accounts or opportunities when you have the most energy. Maybe have a few hours in the mid-day for meetings.

And schedule time later in the day for administrative tasks. Or you could employ a day-parting schedule by making East Coast calls in the morning and West Coast calls in the afternoon, and meetings and emails in the middle of the day. Whatever you decide, don’t have a to-do item, have a calendar entry.

The point is to set your schedule so your to-do list isn’t disconnected from your time. It will help you get what’s most important to you, done.

Learning effective time management is one of the best things you can do to improve your sales process. It doesn’t cost any money and you will see an immediate difference in your productivity and, ultimately, your commissions.